When Singing Siblings Have A Sentimental Reunion
I am still high after a weekend of bonding with my siblings. Last September, our sister Lory decided to organize the family’s celebration of the 80th birthday of, Ducky, our second oldest brother, in Medina, Misamis Oriental where he resides with his wife, Snoogie. To make sure everyone of the 10 of us who was fit to travel was committed, she bought our airline tickets four months ahead.
We are 10 siblings, ages 82 to 64, and we are all still alive. Eight of us and some spouses signed up for the magical weekend in Medina. Babsy flew in from Oregon. The two who could not join us are in the US, Tictac is ill and Jake is homebound with his wife who cannot travel, also due to illness.
Eleven of us — four of the six boys and their spouses, and three of the four girls — took the early morning flight from NAIA 3 to Butuan on Friday, for the whirlwind two-day and two-night birthday celebration. We did this once before, on our father’s 100th birthday in 2015, when nine of us siblings went on a sentimental journey to Cebu, to the mountainside where our father perished in the airplane crash that killed President Magsaysay and 21 others in 1957. But last weekend, we were in a celebratory mood.
We were grumpy having had little sleep to catch our red eye flight, but the welcome we received from Ducky and Snoogie quickly revived our spirits. Medina was a two-hour drive from Butuan airport, broken by a stop at a roadside resort for a proper breakfast. At Snoogie’s house in Medina, we were treated to the sweetest, freshest lanzones – called longkong -- that were harvested from her trees in the backyard. The trees were short and the fruits were hanging so low, we could pick and eat to our heart’s content.
After lunch at a beautiful seaside resort half an hour from Medina, we were deposited to the Duka Bay Resort where four rooms of a villa built right by the water, were reserved for our group.
After dinner at Duka Bay, Jim stood up to render some songs for the sparse dinner crowd. Then Gabby approached the pianist and sang a few ballads. Then, Lory, on her way back from the ladies room, joined Gabby at the mic. Before long, the entire clan was on stage and we jammed spontaneously for around an hour, ending with our family anthems — Oklahoma, If I Loved You (which was Ducky’s signature song that he sang solo in college with the Ateneo Glee Club), and I Believe.
I can never finish singing the latter without choking on my tears.
It was raining hard on Saturday morning and the Amihan winds had stoked the ocean into a frenzy. The rain and the ocean spray made it impossible to eat breakfast in the resort or on the patio so we called for room service and ate our breakfast crowded around two tables that we brought into Jim and Lydia’s room.
At 3 p.m., we were fetched for Ducky’s birthday party in their house. On the way there, Raffy invented a nonsensical birthday song to the tune of Home on the Range that we sang for the birthday boy, along with our private stash of homemade ditties that no one outside the family appreciates and understands.
After dinner, someone brought in a guitar and the singing commenced again. Jim said we probably sang 40 songs before he stopped playing and passed the guitar to Gabby and we continued singing. We could have sung all night, but we had an early flight to catch in the morning. Again, we ended with our anthems that we sang solemnly, like we were praying. We would miss being silly together, like this, with Ducky in our midst. We thought of Tictac and Jake who could not join us. I prayed for the birthday boy, that he remains in good health, and that it wouldn’t be the last time we could be as many as this in one place.
We always had music in the house. The record player was always on; we spinned those vinyls constantly. At the time, we could fit in one small car with our parents. We didn’t have a car radio, and on road trips, Mom, who was at the wheel, would ask us to sing – maybe so she would stay awake, but more likely to make sure we didn’t fight for space in the crowded vehicle. When we were lazy and uncooperative, she’d start praying the rosary, which made us break spontaneously into song!
As far back as I remember, we have sung when we’re together — folk songs, Christmas carols, Ateneo Glee Club songs, the Beatles, Broadway musicals, Motown, church songs, anything with notes! We invented songs to tease each other and although they made the victims cry once upon a time, these ditties remain in our silly repertoire.
Music is in our DNA. Although no one I know in the clan studied music, our great grandfather Lucas wrote zarzuelas. His grandson, also named Lucas, composed and played a mean jazz piano, and his sons Guy, Douglas and Paul regaled us with their musicality when we were young. My father played the piano by ear. I first heard and loved Rhapsody in Blue played by my Dad on my Lola’s piano when I was eight. In our generation, Jesse and Ducky brought music into the house with their friends in the Ateneo Glee Club, Jim made his name as a composer and member of APO, Lory has been part of many musical groups, Gabby was the soloist of his popular college band, The End. Raffy is the hidden talent, famous for his Tom Jones impersonation. Babsy’s son, Joey Quirino, plays the keyboard with the AMP Band. And the rest of us sing one way or another.
I find nothing more pleasurable than being with my siblings, and my greatest fear is to be the last among us to go, singing by my lonesome.
Our flight on Sunday morning was at 7 a.m. so we had to leave Medina at 3 a.m. to get to the airport at five. We were groggy from lack of sleep, and hungry for breakfast, but the singing, laughter and tight bonding of the weekend kept our spirits up. We were all asleep on the plane, with smiles on our faces and songs in our hearts.
